Abstract [en]

A large number of new businesses are started every year and only in the first quarter of 2015, 18 618 businesses started up. Starting up a new business requires, by the entrepreneur that is starting it, an idea and a plan for how it should be implemented. Today entrepreneurs in start-ups are a central part of the economy, which makes them an interesting topic to study. For the entrepreneurs to succeed in their business, it is of importance that the accounting functions. Several previous studies discuss the fact that entrepreneurs do not have the knowledge about accounting that is required in start-ups. The reason why several entrepreneurs do not succeed in their business is in fact the lack of knowledge about accounting, as showed in previous studies.

The main purpose of this paper was to increase the understanding of the importance of external accounting in start-ups, which have been done by describing the entrepreneur´s participation in the year-end procedure in start-ups. A qualitative approach was used during the study to answer the purpose, where we interviewed ten entrepreneurs from nine different start-ups regarding their participation in the year-end procedure.

Empirical results conclude that all entrepreneurs are involved in the year-end procedure. The study also demonstrated that entrepreneurs in start-ups are taking help from external parties to put together the year-end procedure.

We have used the sense-making theory to gain an understanding of why and how the entrepreneurs participate in the year-end procedure, by which we could obtain several value creating reasons for participation. It is difficult to draw a general conclusion of what a value-creating action is as a result of participation in the various phases for all entrepreneurs. However it is possible to distinguish various reasons for the different entrepreneurs that can be seen as value creating.